24 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Mr. Taylor (Scott, 1892) gives a somewhat different impression, 

 thus : 



The Blackbirds at their best have a very lean and shabby appearance, and 

 are slow and awlvward in their movements. I have watched an individual 

 make several ineffectual attempts to alight on the frond of a cocoanut palm ; 

 but even among the branches of other trees their actions appear awkward. 

 Their flight is slow and gliding, somewhat labored, and of little duration, the 

 birds often appearing to fall short of the point originally aimed at. Yet they 

 will chase the large yellow butterflies, and I was shown a large green locust 

 that one of these birds was seen to capture in flight and afterwards drop. In 

 the progress of a flock from place to place they do not usually fly all together, 

 but move away in straggling gi'oups or couples. One or more individuals first 

 start off with their wailing call, followed soon after by two or three ; after a 

 little delay then two more go ; another pause, then one, then three, and so on. 

 If a tree has very dense foliage they alight (with much awkward scrambling) 

 on the tops or extremities of the highest branches, where they may gain a 

 clear and uninterrupted view, and this is usually the case when they are 

 traversing very open country. 



Voice. — ^The note of the ani has been called a wailing or a whining 

 whistle ; it has been said to resemble the notes of the wood duck. Dr. 

 Wetmore (1927) says: "The ordinary call-notes are a low hur-r-rh and 

 a querulous quee ick, quee ick^ varied by low chuckling notes. When 

 the birds are at all wild, they serve to alarm the entire country, as 

 they begin to call on the slightest provocation." It has also been ex- 

 pressed as quG-yuch^ que-yuch^ que-yuch by Gosse (1847) and simi- 

 larly by others. 



Field marks. — The ani is such a peculiar and unique bird that it 

 could hardly be mistaken for anything else. It is the only long, 

 slender, black bird, with a long tail, short wings, and a huge bill, that 

 is to be found within its range, so far as I know. Its shape and its 

 manner of flight are quite different from those of the grackles; its 

 concave back in flight, referred to above, is distinctive. Gosse (1847) 

 says : "The appearance of the bird in its sliding flights is unusual ; 

 the body is slender, the head large, and the beak enormous ; and as in 

 flying it assumes a perfectly straight form, with the long tail in the 

 same line, without flapping the wings, it takes the aspect, on a side 

 view, rather of a fish than of a bird." 



Where our two small species of anis come together in Panama, they 

 are likely to be confused, but the voices of the two are quite distinct ; 

 the call of. the groove-billed is softer and higher in pitch, while that 

 of the smooth-billed is more raucous and whining. The grooves in 

 the bill of the former are not easily seen, except under favorable 

 circumstances, but the culmen of the bill in the smooth-billed is 

 much higher and sharper than in the groove-billed. 



